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Xfire's Age of Conan statistics eschew easy classification
It's an interesting time for Age of Conan. On the surface, their monumental first month and record sales numbers give the appearance of a solid new contender in the MMO sphere. At the same time, the bug problems and vacuous end-game has reportedly left many players heading for greener pastures. Fanboys and detractors alike have been looking for some sort of indication of how the game is faring as it moves into its second month of operation. One metric that's been tossed about recently is the Age of Conan usage data for Xfire users over the past month.On the surface, the numbers look less than optimistic. From a peak of about 80,000 player hours around the time of launch, the game is hovering around in the mid-30's this weekend. This data may be less than helpful for a number of reasons, however. For one, we don't have reliable trend data about how similar games like Lord of the Rings Online (which pulled in a quarter of the minutes played per day over the same period) have fared immediately post-launch, and we don't know how reliable a sample Xfire users actually are. Still, expect these numbers to continue to be bandied about as proof of one thing or another.
Join WoW Insider on Xfire, 1800 CEST
If you're a speedy reader, you've got a few minutes to get yourselves down to Xfire. We'll be taking part in a live chat with them starting at 1800 CEST/12:00pm ET (that's in a few minutes!). To sign up for the event and join in, add Chatteox to your Xfire friends and you'll get an invite to the chat room. You'll be able to ask us anything about the invitational you like, so fire away! The chat ends at 1830 CEST/12:30pm ET.
Xfire to broadcast WoW's Sunwell Plateau raid live
This Wednesday at noon (EDT), Xfire will run a live broadcast of a raid in World of Warcraft's top instance -- the Sunwell Plateau. The raid will be performed by famous uberguild Nihilum, and the broadcast will run on the Dyyno technology.This is the second raid broadcast by Xfire, but this time around advances in technology enable a higher number of viewers and better quality. Up to 4,000 people may tune in. Four different points of view will be provided -- those of a Warrior, a Hunter, a Druid, and a Warlock. The raid is expected to last between three and four hours. To watch, you'll have to head over to Xfire's website and install both the Xfire client and the Dyyno plugin.What do you think, readers? Pro-level raiding as a spectator sport? Is that something you're actually intrigued by, or does it sound like a terrible waste of time? We're skeptical, but maybe we're just not as l33t as j00.
New live raid broadcast by Nihilum
We've told you before about Nihilum's new planned broadcast of a Sunwell Plateau raid, hosted by XFire. We just wanted to remind you that the big day's right around the corner -- the broadcast starts live on Wednesday, June 25th at 19 CEST. This time around, there's 4,000 view slots available, and you'll be able to watch the raid over the shoulder of a Warrior, Hunter, Druid, or Warlock. The broadcast is set to run about 3 to 4 hours. As Natalie warned you before, make sure you have the Dyyno plug-in installed and ready to go ahead of time. (Dyyno runs "best" under XP on Internet Explorer, but should work fine with Firefox.) Check out the event's web site for more instructions. Nihilum doesn't promise a Kil'Jaeden take-down -- but why risk missing it?
Nihilum plans another live stream of Sunwell Plateau raid
Nihilum, famed Horde guild on Magtheridon EU, will be running a second live, streaming raid on the Sunwell Plateau this month. Partnering with Xfire, Nihilum is set to provide the entire raid in real-time, through your browser with the Dyyno plug-in. Choose your favorite class and watch the raid through the eyes and screens of a Warrior, Druid, or Warlock from the guild. (Choose wisely because you can't switch later.) If you missed Nihilum's first live streaming raid in May -- and you probably did since they only had 1,000 spots available -- you'll want to install the plug-in ahead of time. (Note that Dyyno has been tested for XP and will run under Vista but Mac/Safari is not yet supported.) The upcoming event has a 3,000 viewer limit, but log on early so you don't miss the chance to view one of WoW's top guilds blast their way through formidable end-game content. During the live broadcast, you'll be able to interact with other viewers in the Xfire chat rooms.Nihilum's raid will take place on on June 25, 2008, at 1:00pm Eastern Time (convert the start time into your own time zone). The entire broadcast will last 3 to 4 hours so bring your snacks and make sure your seatbacks and tray tables are in the upright and locked position. Good luck to Nihilum! I'll be watching and rooting for you.
How easily can your account be hacked?
You've probably heard the stories before. A friend's roommate's cousin once got his WoW account hacked. The hacker took all of his character's items and gold, and left a few naked, violated characters to fend for themselves. It conjures the same feelings as coming home to find your house has been broken into, or walking out to the driveway in the morning to find your car is gone.There has been a recent phenomenon of hacked accounts lately, more than ever. WoW had a recent problem with Xfire, and several people got their accounts hacked. The leader of Rebel Rising [rawr], one of the top PvP guilds in Guild Wars just got their account hacked and the hacker disbanded the entire [rawr] alliance and deleted the guild. This is a guild that had worked for years to establish itself in the GW PvP community, including its very own tournament cup named after them. But the fact that it can all go away so easily, as it did from one hacker, makes us aware of the inherent dangers and vulnerabilities we face in this environment.
Xfire breaks 10 million users, 16,000 years online
Gamedaily has the report that Xfire, the online service for gamers (that we have coordinated a few events with in the past), has broken a whopping ten million users. That, you'll probably realize, is just as many as World of Warcraft, and in fact, while Xfire apparently has support for over 1,200 games, World of Warcraft always seems to rank pretty high on the list.In fact, our friends at Xfire have another number that they've shared with us: in the month of April alone, Xfire users spent 16,000 years online -- that is, if you add up all the time spent online by all the users of the client just in April, you get a time period longer than pretty much the whole history of civilization on Earth. That's huge.Which makes us wonder just how long players actually spend in WoW -- surely not all WoW players are using Xfire, so the number has to be much bigger than that. At any rate, Xfire is apparently banging, and odds are that WoW is playing a big part.
Nihilum to stream live Sunwell Plateau raid
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Top_WoW_guild_to_stream_live_raid_on_the_hardest_content'; Nihilum, in conjunction with Xfire, will be streaming their Sunwell Plateau raid on April 30th live to internet. This is an amazing opportunity for raiders around the world to see how one of WoW's top guilds raids high end content – unedited and uncut.Xfire has a limit of 1000 people on the stream, so you'll have to get there early if you want to watch it. My guess is that 1000 streams is quite inadequate. Based on numbers that I've gotten on the YouTube video's I've posted here, they could easily have ten times that and still be short. Hopefully there'll be more of this, and the number of available streams will increase.Nihilum's raid will take place at 19:00 CEST April 30th, which is 12:00 p.m. CDT, 1:00 p.m. EDT, and 10:00 a.m. PDT (all on April 30th, no crossing of the international date line).Mark your calendars for this one. I know I will be!
Welcome ArenaNet's newest Community Manager
In what seems a continuing stream of Guild Wars community news coverage by us in the past week, we have yet another tidbit concerning their newest Community Manager. Regina Buenaobra has taken the reins over at ArenaNet, after Gaile Gray was promoted within the company earlier this week.Regina, also known as Brinstar over at her blog Acid for Blood, has been blogging about Guild Wars and other games for several years now. Before this recent move, she was the Community Manager for Xfire, so she does have experience in this context. She lists her main character as a Necromancer/Mesmer, which certainly gets her some cool points in our book. We wish her all the best in her new position and her new move from California to Washington.
GDC08 Highlights: The future of Virtual Worlds and the end of GDC08
The Future of MMOs The Future of MMOs panel liveblogTeam Massively was there to live blog one of the most anticipated panels of GDC08. On it were a few names you might have heard of, like Cryptic Studios' Jack Emmert, Nexon's Min Kim, BioWare's Ray Muzyka, and Rob Pardo (who has apparently worked on some sort of popular fantasy game). We blogged a blow-by-blow account of the jabs, cuts, and parries from these Massive genre heavyweights. %Gallery-16640%
GDC08: Xfire's video capture beta
We missed this story last month, but our intrepid on-the-ground crew at GDC has found it out for us: Xfire, the PC chat client/game launcher/social networking tool, has introduced a beta video capture module into their application. Taking a cue from sites and services like WeGame, they are using their own video codec (xfcodec, which unfortunately won't work with a few video applications yet), and letting you record video on the fly during any Xfire-enabled game. We're told that a future version will enable you to upload your videos directly to your Xfire profile.As you can see above, despite YouTube's horrible compression, the video itself doesn't look too bad. And James Woodcock, who took this video, says that while the audio still has a few issues, the video quality before compression is "exceptional." Not everybody is thrilled -- the client can sometimes cause lag and drop frames -- but Xfire says they want to hear about any issues you have. Anyone tried it yet?
Xfire notes slump in PC playtime, dubs it "Halo 3 effect"
If ever there was an industry prone to cannibalism, it would be the games industry. If gamers aren't playing one game, chances are it's because another game has captured their attention with its siren song. According to data by Xfire and reported by Gamesindustry.biz, hours played by subscribers to its service did not pick in October as expected. July and August are typically slow months for PC games, as many players take the rare opportunity to go outside and many also make the move to college during that period. But instead of rising again as the seasons changed, October numbers actually continued to fall. They've chosen to dub this the "Halo 3 effect," as Microsoft's hit shooter sent shock waves not just through the game industry, but through the larger entertainment business as well, reportedly stunting sales of moving ticket sales through that period as well.Xfire has a subscriber base over 8 million strong, so while they might not be the perfect indicator of larger trends in the game industry, they're certainly one of the best representative samples available. World of Warcraft continued to dominate the overall numbers, with 332,139 hours played during October, beating out perennial PC favorites Call of Duty 2 and Counterstrike: Source. The rest of the MMO crowd ambled behind, with EVE Online being the second most popular massive game, followed by Lord of the Rings Online, Lineage II, and Star Wars Galaxies.It makes you wonder what would happen if the rumored Halo MMO comes to fruition.
Xfire chats with Hellgate devs, transcript online
For those too busy trick or treating Wednesday night to make it to the chat with the Flagship Studios folks hosted by Xfire, a transcript has been made available online for your viewing pleasure. Word has it that it was the most popular chat session that Xfire has ever hosted, which is no surprise to us, because excitement for Hellgate: London has been off the charts. Among the things that stood out to us during the chat, which featured at least one developer in nearly every area of production, including art, sound, design, graphics, programming and more, was a heavy focus on future content. One listener complained about the lack of visual diversity in the game, to which graphics programmer Amir Ebrahimi replied, "HGL's dynamic level technology was built with the idea that we'd be extending well into the future. As with any big-budget game today, building environments are costly in terms of man-hours. We've yet to tap the flexibility of our DRLG technology and you'll see more in the future. As we add more areas and tilesets, our designers will be able to mix and match to create new environments for your enjoyment."The transcript runs over 8000 words in its entirety, so there's a lot of content in there for you hungry Hellgate fans.
Your chance for a live chat with Hellgate developers on Halloween
If you're anticipating Hellgate: London amidst its recent controversy, and want to find out more about the game, why not just ask the developers? 1UP.com has posted news that Xfire is hosting a live chat with a team from Hellgate developer Flagship Studios. Listed on the Xfire site, the developers participating in the event will be: Bill Roper, CEO Flagship Studios Aletheia Simonson, Art Producer Bill Manegold, Game Programmer Amir Ebrahimi, Graphics Programmer Guy Somberg, Audio and Gameplay Programmer To be in with a chance to talk to them, visit Xfire's website and enter your email address. If you're lucky enough to be selected, you'll receive an email from Xfire giving you the details of the chat. It is scheduled for 6pm EDT on October 31st, which as 1UP notes, is the actual release date of Hellgate: London, so chances are if you're a die-hard fan, you will have already been playing the game all day. Oh, and I guess October 31st is Halloween too.
Playing WoW with an Xbox 360 controller via Switchblade
We've seen WoW played with a Wii controller before, but this looks like a really serious effort to get the Xbox 360 controller compatible with our favorite MMO. A company called Blue Orb Software has released an app called Switchblade, a free download that lets you use your PC-enabled Xbox 360 controller specifically to play World of Warcraft.Why would you want to do this? Their press release cites gamers "hooked on the console experience," and so their controller will let you play WoW console style. You can see the basic settings on their site-- it looks like the left and right triggers are used as toggles, turning the four action buttons into 12, and allowing you to use any icon on one of the action bars in WoW. Probably not quite versatile enough for running PvP, but for running daily quests and grinding, it looks just crazy enough to work.The download is available through Xfire (and it looks like you need to download Xfire to get Switchblade), and the program should work with any wired Xbox 360 controller (if you have a wireless only, you'll have to buy an extra receiver from Microsoft). I think I've got a wired controller sitting around here somewhere, so I'll give it a try and get back to you on how it works. In the meantime, someone download it, and let us know in the comments-- is it worth installing this thing to play WoW with buttons and joysticks?
WoW Xfire hours played drops 18 percent in September
Gamesindustry.biz is reporting a huge drop in /played time over the past month for World of Warcraft players. From August to September, Xfire users played WoW 18 percent less than the previous month.But it's likely not necessarily because of the oft-delayed 2.2.2-- the drop is probably just the difference between students out of school and in school. Over the summer, students were obviously able to play a lot more with all the freetime they had, but as school starts up again in September, there's more homework and less rep grinding to do. Still, 18 percent is a huge drop-- while school starting up is definitely a big part of it, I wouldn't be surprised if the slowdown in patch releases (even though it's since picked back up again) also had a hand in it.Though it can't be that big a difference-- both Guild Wars and Silkroad Online (the other two big MMO titles on Xfire) saw similar drops. It'll be interesting to see what happens next month. I wonder if Brewfest (and soon, Hallow's End and 2.3) was able to convince students to take their homework breaks in Azeroth.[ via Incgamers ]
Xfire shows off their latest Xstatics
If you're anything like us, you may not be aware of what Xfire does besides run stellar machinima contests or host interesting discussions in their debate club. However, they also produce a gaming-oriented IM client that lets you see what games your friends are playing, chat with them in or out of game, and join them in whatever game they might be playing. This little application allows Xfire to compile some interesting data about the games people are playing and – while their data doesn't include every last gamer – with over 8 million users in 700 different games, they have a broad sampling size. Read on for a breakdown of the details or check out Xfire's Xstatics site.
BlizzCon 2007: Thank you!
Robin, Elizabeth, Amanda, Barb, and I all had a great time at BlizzCon, and there's quite a few people that we should thank for helping us out there. First, a huge thanks to Blizzard for putting it all together, and especially to their CM staff and the PR department for setting us up with a press pass and getting us the access we needed. Another big thank you to all the guys at Xfire, who not only co-presented coverage with us, but did a terrific job of their own, and even let us in a few doors that we couldn't have opened otherwise. Upper Deck also was kind enough to sit down with us (and provide some information on their upcoming products that I'll be posting soon). We were excited to meet Ian Beckman, maker of Azerothian Supervillians, as well as the two guys who run WoW Drama, a blog about serious business in WoW. And Kevin Kelly from Joystiq joined us for most of the convention, and helped out immensely with his experience and knowhow. Back here at the ranch, we have to thank our homebound bloggers for filling in the blanks of our coverage, and we have to give a nod to our friend Boubouille over at MMO Champion, who was not only instrumental in getting some of the leaks out (and getting Frank Pierce angry at us), but also hooked us up with a few links and said some very nice things about our coverage. The guys at WoW Radio were also seen almost nonstop at BlizzCon, and gave us a nice nod as well.And last but farthest from least, we have to thank you, our readers, who not only came up and said hi, hello, and thank you to us at both the WoW Insider meetup on Thursday (the video above is a short sweep of the crowd there at the Lost Bar, right before our trivia contest), but also on the floor as well. Back here on the site, you read your way through our 99 posts over the weekend, gave us record numbers of page views, and helped us out with comments, questions, and tons of support. Thanks very much for everything-- we really, really appreciate it.We're far from done (we've got more BlizzCon news to report on, and of course we need to get around to the discussion of whether we really want siege weapons or not), but now that the event itself is over, we just wanted to take a second and say thanks. So thank you.
Xfire has chats up from BlizzCon
Yes, even though we've been extremely busy here at BlizzCon, the guys from Xfire (who stopped by our party on Thursday, as did a few folks from Upper Deck and Blizzard), haven't been slacking off, either. They've posted quite a few live chats over the weekend, and here's a roundup for you to browse through. Their biggest event was probably a chat with Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan-- I actually was standing right next to him when they did this one. If you're an Engineer, check it out for sure-- he says they'll be able to craft flying machines! They also chatted it up with a few high profile players: The1Crow and Beraa from MYM (and here's part 2), The Hukhukhukhukhuks from Team EG (parts 1 and 2), and even Jonas from Nihilum. And we have no idea why they wanted to do this, but before the Con, they even sat down to chat with us-- here's part 1, part 2, and the Lightning Round! (guess which is my favorite part) Amanda, Elizabeth and I all made predictions about what would happen, and we got a lot of stuff right (and, ok, some stuff wrong). Plus, Xfire has lots more from the floor, including pictures, updates, stories, news, and tons of other stuff. Thanks to them for all their help this weekend, and go check out their coverage!
WoW Insider chats with Xfire at BlizzCon
Oh Illidan and Kael'thas, you two are so silly. The folks behind Azerothian Supervillians put together a fun little trailer for Xfire featuring two of Azeroth's most heinous masterminds.But what they're planning is what we're doing-- covering every single second of BlizzCon. WoW Insider has teamed up with Xfire (yes, the use of "teamed up" was intentional there) to cover Blizzard's big event like it's never been covered before. If you haven't checked out Xfire's main BlizzCon page yet, here it is. And if you haven't gotten an Xfire account yet, do that too (it's easy and free), because on Thursday (tomorrow) at 4pm Pacific, WoW Insider bloggers (including myself) will be chatting live on Xfire. You'll have the chance to ask us about our official predictions for the show, check in with what we think of Anaheim so far, and tell us exactly, in chat-room person, what you think should be covered at BlizzCon.Get on Xfire and get online (put the account "blizzcon2007" on your friends list) tomorrow, Thursday August 2nd at 4pm Pacific to chat live with WoW Insider from Anaheim. And of course, stay tuned all weekend for great BlizzCon open-to-close coverage, courtesty of Xfire and WoW Insider.
